Indspire

Indigenous Education, Canada's Future

Mission

An Indigenous-led charity that has a vision to enrich Canada through Indigenous education and by empowering Indigenous communities.

Indspire is so excited to be participating in Gift the Code 2017! As a non-profit organization with limited resources, it’s sometimes difficult to stay on the leading edge of technology that will benefit the people we serve. Opportunities such as Gift the Code will make all the difference to our staff, our supporters and the Indigenous students and educators we support through our programming!

About

In partnership with Indigenous, and private- and public-sector stakeholders, Indspire educates, connects and invests in Indigenous people so they can achieve their highest potential. Indspire is led by Indigenous people for Indigenous people. It serves First Nation, Inuit and Métis students in remote communities and urban centres across Canada. With the support of its funding partners, it grants financial awards, delivers programs and shares resources with the goal of closing the gap in Indigenous education.

To promote and honour the achievements of Indigenous peoples in Canada, Indspire conducts an annual award ceremony called “Indspire Awards” – a national celebration that engages 300,000 viewers.

With the solutions from Gift the Code, Indspire will be able to increase the impact of its work, streamline labour-intensive processes and build a richer Canada inclusive of all Indigenous peoples.

Challenge Statements

Create a solution that enables Indspire to match mentors with mentees.

Mentorship is a powerful experience for both mentors and mentees, but the degree of impact from the relationship is often drawn from the ability to have a strong personal connection. This solution will help Indspire make meaningful connections between mentors and mentees in order to foster life-changing relationships throughout Indigenous communities.

Indspire coordinates scholarships from donor companies that help Indigenous youth access higher education. Criteria for these scholarships are diverse and specific, and the process of matching eligible students is tedious. This solution will allow Indspire spend more time on assessing the most deserving students, rather than on time-consuming tasks of just identifying who is eligible.

Create a solution that enables Indspire to effectively train and evaluate Regional Reps.

As a nation-wide organization, Indspire works to provide consistent programming and impact to Indigenous communities throughout Canada. Regional Reps are an important part of this process as they are on the ground in each of Indspire’s geographic centres. Ensuring that the Regional Reps are effectively trained and have continued support throughout their work is imperative to Indspire’s success. This solution will build a creative tool to help facilitate this currently tedious process.

Create a solution that engages Indspire members to give feedback on the Soaring Conference.

Each year, Indspire organizes a conference series for high school students across Canada to learn about career and post-secondary education options. At the conferences, students participate in career workshops, learn about financial support and meet Canada’s top employers. Understanding what aspects of the conference are the most helpful and where there are opportunities for improvement is important information for Indspire to collect and assess in order to continue delivering impactful content. This solution will help do just that.